AUSTRALIA READY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 15 October 1942, Page 3

AUSTRALIA READY

INVASION MENACE AERODROMES IN STRATEGIC AREAS I K MNI I) \N 1) TOUGHENED TROOPS Sydney, OH. 7 si "Japan's biggest (roubles at the moment lie in the Soulh-West Pacific. Sin musi immobilise Australia and New ; Zealand, for she cannot a (ford to havi I bases, armies, and air strength grow u| ; here and menace her great island cmi Australia's best-known war common laI tors. I- expanded perhaps by tin ' majority of Australians, to a belief tha j 1 lie enemy's Imres are determined »>t | a direct invasion ol the Common : wealth. General Tojo. Premier o , Japan, has reinforced their appreheni sum- by his threat that the J alines ( will "be m Perth before Christmas.*’ But. if and when Japan decides t< - | hazard direct attacks against Australia - j she will find a nation mightily prepar st ed- wherever she mav choose to strike \ U Is generally conceded that the mos ! likely area for invasion is Ihe extremt i j north, within 500 miles of Severn I strongly-held Japanese bases. Acros: g these waters, far Irom Allied nava j bases, an enemy invasion fleet eoulc - j move with relative security under tin protection of its land-based aircraft rj While Allied air forces in the nortl | would certainly offer strenuous oppose ;, j turn, odds against the Japanese woulc - i be much less than should they altemp j to occupy almost any other part o i j Australia's vast coastline ! This threat, with it- focal point a I' | Darwin, impelled the building of Aus - i tr.ilia's north-south highway —one o , the world's great road-building achiever I moots, linking the operational areas o the north with the production centre: .j of the south. Joining this road is the ; j equally great but lesser-known eastwest road running inland across the • Australian desert from the Queenslanc coast Along both these highways i should the Japanese northern invasior threat be translated to reality, woulc - be rushed reinforcements and supplier - to drive out the invader. j _ Australia early recognised th.e Uneal t° her north. Numerous aerodromes dot the strategic areas-. with plane: manned by Australian and American . crews. Building of new airfields here is a first priority work Kitty hawk • fighter pil.its have wrought such‘havoc among Japanese aircraft bent on raiding Darwin that tor many weeks the enemy has been dissuaded from a pastime proven singularly unremuncrative. Allied bomber crews claim to know popular targets at the cnemv bases of Koepang and Dillj as well as they kn<uv their home Not so long ago horses were the favoured form of motive power in this aroj. To-day army jeeps arc everywhere. Troops Australian and American. are to be encountered in the most remote places. Servicemen in this operational zone have little entertainment. There arc no private homes, no shops, no towns -jest an occasional issue of beer and a once-in-a-while picture show of years-old films. Favourite form of relaxation is known to the troops as “spine-bash-ing lying on one’s camp bed. reading or dozing. The more energetic go on occasional shooting excursions, or they fish-it stunning fish with high explosives merits that description. In tlie Northern Territory, the long, hot dry season dries men out. according to army medical officers. After about a year most men begin to lose weight and appetite Army policy therefore has been to transfer to more temperature areas men having had Ift months of continuous service in the far Even more trying than the enervating heat i« the dust, which A.I.F. personnel who served in Egypt and Libya describe a? “worse than the dust of the Western Desert." Red-coloured and fine as talcum powder, it colours the roofs of buildings a s if they had been painted. Behind moving vehicles it floats in pennants trailing for a hundred yards About a year ago command of Australia's Northern Territory force was handed over to an A.I.F* leader and staff who had won distinction in the Middle East. To-day even junior commanders ir. the area are proven active service veterans, and their rigorously trained and toughened troops arc reckoned the most capable fighting force n all Australia. Apart from Allied air power, which the Japanese have already found so formidable .these ground troops are 'V?il supported with armoured fighting strength. It is little more than a year since the first Australian armoured division was formed —and presence in Australia of the 28-ton American General Grant tanks and the British Matildas was revealed some time ago. Expansion of this “right arm" of the j fighting services has been enormous. 1 Cost of equipping the division, most j oowerful section of Australia’s war I machine, was C 25.000.000 Its base! workshop? alone cost £2,500.000 An unstated part of Australia’s ar- j •noured strength waits in the north, in J company with growing air power and other land forces, to meet any Japan- | esc invader bold enough to attempt to i set foot on the Australian mainland.— P.A. Special Australian Correspondent !